Divine

Francesco Albani's The Baptism of ChristWhile Luke is explicit about the Spirit of God descending in the shape of a dove, the wording of Matthew is vague enough that it could be interpreted only to suggest that the descent was in the style of a dove. There was a wide array of symbolism attached to doves at the time these passages were written. While Howard Clarke believes the symbolism pointed to Noah sending out a dove to search out new land and hence is a symbol of re-birth, Albright and Mann[6] note that in Hosea, the dove is a symbol for the nation of Israel. In the Graeco-Roman world the dove was a symbol of purity due to its whiteness and the belief that it had no bile, it was also a symbol of Aphrodite, goddess of love, lust and beauty. Whatever the original intent of the Synoptic Gospels, the dove imagery has become a well known symbol for the Holy Ghost in Christian art.